AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers. AdLit.org is an educational initiative of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation's capital, and is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and by the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation.

Text Structure

Background

Text structure refers to how the information within a written text is organized. This strategy helps students understand that a text might present a main idea and details; a cause and then its effects; and/or different views of a topic. Teaching students to recognize common text structures can help students monitor their comprehension.

Benefits

Teachers can use this strategy with the whole class, small groups, or individually. Students learn to identify and analyze text structures which helps students navigate the various structures presented within nonfiction and fiction text. As a follow up, having students write paragraphs that follow common text structures helps students recognize these text structures when they are reading.

Create and Use the Strategy

To create the text structure strategy teachers should:

Choose the assigned reading and introduce the text to the students.

Introduce the idea that texts have organizational patters called text structures.

Introduce the following common text structures (see chart below for more detailed information):

description,

sequence,

problem and solution,

cause and effect, and

compare and contrast.

Introduce and model using a graphic organizer to chart the text structure.

To use the text structure strategy teachers should:

Show examples of paragraphs that correspond to each text structure.

Examine topic sentences that clue the reader to a specific structure.

Model the writing of a paragraph that uses a specific text structure.

Have students try write paragraphs that follow a specific text structure.